In Brief (four items)

Verisign Unveils Wireless Certificate Service

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Verisign Inc. has introduced a digital certificate service for server and gateway systems conforming to WAP, the Wireless Application Protocol.Following competing announcements by such certificate providers as Entrust Technologies Inc. and Diversinet Inc., Verisign said it offers the most comprehensive service on the market, in that it is compatible with a wide range of WAP servers including those of Motorola, Nokia, and Phone.com.

Verisign is also offering developers and service providers free trial certificates to accelerate its entry into the wireless transaction market. It said the WAP certificates are easily linked to the Verisign Trust Network to bridge the wireless and wired worlds.

"Now our customers can serve their mobile end-users with the same degree of confidence and security that they have been delivering to date on their 'dot-com' sites," said Verisign president and chief executive officer Stratton Sclavos.


S. African Certificate Firm Prevails in Survey

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Thawte Certification, which announced an agreement this month to be acquired by digital certificate leader Verisign Inc., said it is on the verge of being "the most widely trusted Internet CA," or certification authority, in the world.Citing the international Netcraft Secure Server Survey, Thawte said it has a 41% share of the market for server certificates using SSL, the Secure Sockets Layer protocol that is the dominant means of securing credit card transactions and other Internet communications.

Thawte is in a position to capitalize on demand for interoperability among data security vendors because its certificates are recognized by most Web browsers for authentication of server-site computers.

"Thawte was relatively unknown two years ago," said Mark Shuttleworth, president of the four-year-old South African company. "But we are finding more enterprise-class companies turning to us as a viable alternative to meet their SSL needs. Thawte is gaining recognition as a price and service leader in the SSL market."


Certco Adds Canadian Security Device

NEW YORK - Certco Inc. said it has added security hardware from Chrysalis-ITS of Ottawa to its line of public key infrastructure, or PKI, products.The integration of a hardware mechanism for protecting the root keys that sit atop a transactional security infrastructure is an industry trend, Certco noted. The Chrysalis CA3 token, validated for Federal Information Processing Standard 140-1, Level 3, has been widely deployed for this purpose among PKI vendors.

"As more and more financial institutions deploy trust digital-certificate issuance and management systems, the market is demanding higher levels of security," said Chrysalis vice president of business development Blair Canavan. "The addition of our FIPS-validated products to Certco's PKI products means digital certificate management without compromise."

Peter Lieberwirth, vice president of engineering at Certco, a spinoff of the old Bankers Trust Corp., said Chrysalis was favored because it provides the "lowest-risk, fastest-time-to-market mechanism to serve our customer requirements."


Wholesaler to Carry Cybersource Products

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Cybersource Corp., a leading transaction processor for Internet merchants, said it has signed a reseller agreement with the technology wholesaler Ingram Micro Inc.Cybersource's payment and risk management services, including an antifraud screen designed specifically for electronic commerce, are now offered through the VentureTech Network that Ingram has administered since January 1998. The network consists of more than 500 technology-integration providers that in turn can resell the Cybersource systems.

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